Did I say I was going to buy a Galaxy Note 2? Oh, I change my mind so fast.

The Nexus 4 went on sale again. And I bought it. Ask me, WHY RENATA, WHY DID YOU BUY THE NEXUS?

So, I’ve been on a 3-year-contract with Bell since December 2010. They keep sending me messages suggesting that, for a “small fee”, I can buy a new phone and renew my contract for another three years. Let’s do some math here.

If I wanted a Galaxy Note 2, I’d have to pay, right now:
- 150 to be able to have a new phone
- 200 for the Galaxy on a three year contract

350 + taxes and I would be trapped in a contract for 3 years again. To get the Galaxy contract free, it would cost me 150 + 700 (price of the phone, unlocked). I’m not that crazy.

Now, here comes the Nexus.

Google delivered me an unlocked, carrier-free phone for 400, taxes included. It’s an awesome phone. Really awesome. I won’t do another review because there are plenty of reviews everywhere. I’m happy with my choice, and my bank account is even happier.

I recommend the Nexus to everyone who’s trapped on a carrier contract.

Very, very simple New Year’s Resolutions.

1. New Android Phone. I’ll go with the Samsung Galaxy Note II. My Desire Z is too slow for today’s apps, and the screen is cracked. But I intend to play with its hardware anyway.

2. New Macbook. Now, this is tricky. I’d like a new Macbook Air 11′ – we’re in January and, if MacRumors got it right, I’d have to wait about 6 months for a fresh Air – but with Retina display. Which is not that much, but it’s also not tomorrow.

I don’t have lots of resolutions. I don’t need lots of things. Yep, that’s it.

Building apr

1. Download apr : http://apache.skazkaforyou.com/apr/apr-1.4.6.tar.bz2
2. rpmbuild -tb apr-1.4.x.tar.bz2
3. It will most likely complain about dependencies, some silly message like: expat-devel is needed by apr-1.4.6
4. To get rid of these messages, install all required dependencies by running: yum install expat-devel
5. Then make sure to run rpmbuild -tb apr-14.x-tar-bz2 again. When it exit 0, search for your RPM in rpmbuild/RPMS/ directory. You are going to find two rpms there:

   apr-1.4.6-xxxx-.rpm
apr-devel-1.4.6-xxxx.rpm

   yum install both, so your rpm library is updated

Building apr-utils

It’s a very similar process to building apr.

1. Download apr-util: http://apache.skazkaforyou.com//apr/apr-util-1.4.1.tar.bz2
2. Fix dependenciex by yum install’ing required packages. It requires freetds-devel, which is only available under EPEL.
3. rpmbuild -tb apr-util-1.4.1-x.tar.bz2
4. It will generate all the following packages under rpmbuild/RPMS:

   apr-util-dbm-1.4.1-1.x86_64.rpm
   apr-util-ldap-1.4.1-1.x86_64.rpm
   apr-util-odbc-1.4.1-1.x86_64.rpm
   apr-util-sqlite-1.4.1-1.x86_64.rpm
   apr-util-devel-1.4.1-1.x86_64.rpm
   apr-util-mysql-1.4.1-1.x86_64.rpm
   apr-util-openssl-1.4.1-1.x86_64.rpm
   apr-util-1.4.1-1.x86_64.rpm
   apr-util-freetds-1.4.1-1.x86_64.rpm
   apr-util-nss-1.4.1-1.x86_64.rpm
   apr-util-pgsql-1.4.1-1.x86_64.rpm

5. yum install apr-util-*rpm

Building httpd

1. Download httpd http://apache.skazkaforyou.com//httpd/httpd-2.4.2.tar.bz2
2. It’s not as simple as they state in httpd documentation because of a build bug that requires distcache for httpd and there’s no such thing for CentOS. THEN HOW DO WE DO IT?
   It’s kind of simple. When you rpmbuild -tb httpd-2.4.x-tar.bz2, rpmbuild created a default httpd.spec file under rpmbuild/SPEC/httpd.spec – GO FIND THAT FILE NOW. Now, edit that file and get the lines that references to distcache (mod_socache) and comment them out . Save this file SOMEWHERE ELSE, or it will get overwritten.
3. Save your tarball under rpmbuild/SOURCES/.
4. rpmbuild -ab httpd.spec
5. If you run into this error:

   RPM build errors:
Installed (but unpackaged) file(s) found:
/usr/share/man/man8/fcgistarter.8.gz

   Edit the httpd.spec file and find these lines so they look like this (second line will be added):

   %{_mandir}/man8/rotatelogs.8*
%{_mandir}/man8/fcgistarter.8*

6. Now run :

   rpmbuild --clean httpd.spec
rpmbuild --ab httpd.spec

7. It should work. For real. Good luck, people.
8. Now, just yum install everything else and be happy!

A very interesting phenomenon are the friends I’ve made here in Canada who, once they get to know me, get interested in Brazilian culture. The only problem, I’m a HORRIBLE reference for the kind of thing they ask me about – what Brazil exports is what I loathe the most.

Take, for instance, a guy who tried to befriend me by telling his interest in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Being born and raised in Rio, I can only associate jiu-jitsu practitioners to horrendous brainless douchebags. I tried to explain that to him in a nice way, but I don’t think he believed me. A co-worker was being super nice and friendly and told me how much she loved this brazilian music she heard, she felt like dancing to it immediately, and if I could recommend some bands to her – of course it was AXÉ, something I utterly dislike. Well, at least I could help her, because everyone knows Ivete and Daniela Mercury…

I have been asked about movies, bands, and even food I dislike or don’t know, because that’s the reason I left the country: I don’t care/like the mainstream Brazilian culture. I don’t like soccer, Axé, Pagode, Samba, Carnaval, Feijoada (damn, I don’t even eat pork). My favourite food is sushi! I am a fraud!

The next time you need recommendation in asian gore movies, or nordic electronic bands you can ask me. But brazilian art, maybe someone else.

There are so many things I love about spring!

The squirrels!
The flowers!
The birds!
The cherry blossoms!
Cycling!

Everything looks beautiful, beautiful, oh I love the park and the lake!

But, there’s something I really hate about spring. HAY FEVER. I am back to nasal steroids. Pollen and me, we’re no good friends.